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A retired FBI agent who lives in New Jersey is throwing his hat in the ring for Congress.

Robert Turkavage, a 32-year FBI veteran, is running as a Republicanfor the 2nd District congressional seat held by U.S. Rep. Frank LoBiondo, who is not seeking re-election, the Press of Atlantic City reports.

“For over 23 years, Congressman LoBiondo has served all of the residents of southern New Jersey with honor and distinction,” Robert Turkavage said in a press release. “LoBiondo was a true believer in the notion that the private sector, not the government, creates jobs and fosters economic growth.”

Turkavage said he wants to continue the work of LoBiondo, a fellow Republican, and forge ties with Democrats for sensible legislation.

“Every vote I cast will be weighed against three benchmarks: Is it good for my constituents? Is it good for my country? And most importantly, is it good for our children?” Turkavage said.

Turkavage served as a supervisory special agent of pubic corruption and government fraud in New York City. After the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, Turkavage supervised the Office of Intelligence analytical squads.

In 2005, Turkavage retired from the bureau and became vice president with JPMorgan Chase Bank in New York City, overseeing the fraud prevention unit.

If all goes as planned, hawkish CIA Director Mike Pompeo will leave his post to become President Trump’s next secretary of state, replacing Rex W. Tillerson, whose relationship with the White House has become strained.

The New York Times also reports that Pompeo likely would be succeeded at the CIA by Sen. Tom Cotton, an Arkansas Republican who has aligned himself with the president on national security issues.

Trump has not officially approved the plan, which was pitched by White House Chief of Staff John F. Kelly.

Pompeo, a hard-line former Congressman from the Tea Party wing of the party, has expressed more hawkish views toward Iran, North Korea and other prominent issues.

A West Point graduate, Pompeo has been unusually vociferous and political for a CIA director, soft-pedaling the link between Trump’s campaign and Russia and endorsing regime change in North Korea.

Sen. Tim Cotton

Some questions remain about whether Cotton would be tapped to become the CIA director. He’s a strong ally on immigration and national security, but Republicans are hesitant to put a Senate seat in play during what could be disastrous mid-term elections for the party.

The New York Times reports that another potential candidate for the top CIA post is Robert S. Harward, a retired Navy vice admiral who turned down the national security position after Michael T. Flynn’s abrupt departure.

Rep. Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, said he received death threats after tweeting about the FBI’s renewed interest in the investigation into Hillary Clinton’s use of private email servers.

Chaffetz, who is chairman of the powerful House Oversight and Government Reform committee, said he has increased his security, the Salt Lake Tribune reports.

In one of the tweets, Chaffetz mischaracterized a letter from the FBI, saying the bureau had reopened the investigation, even though it had never been closed.

“Unfortunately, I have had some death threats,” Chaffetz said. “Most people want to express their opinions in very volatile situations but you get some people who are a little too aggressive and I’ve turned those over to the authorities to deal with.”

New legislation is aimed at alerting the FBI when a terror suspect tries to buy a gun.

Republican Sen. Mark Kirk of Illinois introduced the legislation in the wake of the Orlando nightclub massacre.

“Terrorists should not be able to buy weapons and the FBI should be notified if a suspected terrorist buys a weapon,” Kirk said in a statement, 5 NBC Chicago reports. “This commonsense legislation equips the FBI with a new tool to stop threats on American lives.”

The measure would require anyone who has been investigated for potential terrorism ties to be entered into the National Instant Criminal Background Check System.

Donald Trump is urging the FBI to aggressively pursue charges against Hillary Clinton for using a private email server while she was secretary of state, saying he would rather run against Bernie Sanders, Politico reports.

“There is no answer to what she did. You know the amazing thing, other than greed, there was no — what’s she doing?” Trump asked. “You just use what you’re supposed to use, and you assume people are listening. Who the hell cares? And then you do what you have to do. All this for what? It’s greed. It’s really just greed in its own way. All she had to do was just do what she was supposed to do.”

Trump said he’d “love to run against Bernie,” calling Sanders a coward after he allowed Black Lives Matters protesters to steal the stage from him in Seattle in August.

“He walked back like a little puppy. This is gonna be our president,” Trump said. “I would love—please FBI, please go after Hillary. I wanna run against Bernie!”

Rep. Jason Chaffetz, the bombastic Republican congressman from Utah who recently announced his candidacy for speaker of the House, has made something of a name for himself in his role as chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee. There, he’s led high-profile investigations of the U.S. Chemical Safety Board, Planned Parenthood, the Drug Enforcement Agency, and the Secret Service, among other organizations.

Evidently, some in the Secret Service didn’t like being the subject of a congressional investigation. (You’ll recall that the agency, which is tasked with protecting the president, has suffered a recent spate of embarrassments and security breaches — most notably, when it failed to prevent an intruder from actually entering the White House last year.) But rather than submit to a fully warranted investigation by Congress to get to the bottom of the safety snafus, higher-ups in the Secret Service instead decided to go after Representative Chaffetz personally.

The Washington Post published the disturbing details last week. “An assistant director of the Secret Service urged that unflattering information the agency had in its files about a congressman ­critical of the service should be made public,” the Post reported, “two days later, a news Web site reported that . . . Jason Chaffetz . . . had applied to be a Secret Service agent in 2003 and been rejected.” Some 45 secret service employees, including supervisors, viewed Mr. Chaffetz’s personal file, the Post noted, which, by law, was supposed to be kept private.

Representative Chaffetz is not totally blameless in this situation. He should have disclosed to the public his relationship with the agency that he was tasked with investigating. But there is simply no excuse for an allegedly nonpartisan government body accessing and releasing private information about one of the people’s representatives.

People within the Secret Service need to be held to account for this chicanery.

Former U.S. House Speaker Dennis Hastert pleaded not guilty Tuesday to charges involving hush money payments and lying to federal agents, the Chicago Tribune reports.

The Tribune wrote that Hastert looked “extremely uncomfortable.”

“As the judge left the bench and Hastert’s high-powered attorneys conferred with prosecutors, Hastert, once one of Illinois’ most prominent politicians, remained by himself near the lectern, his shoulders hunched, arms hanging limp at his sides. After a moment, he turned toward the gallery where dozens of reporters and spectators were filing out and pursed his lips.”

When the brief hearing was over, the 73-year-old Republican was silent as he passed throngs of reporters and flashing cameras.

Hastert is accused of paying $3.5 million to keep quiet wrongdoing during his days as a high school teacher and wrestling coach.